BronyMedic:I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that death by positional asphyxia is not a pleasent way to go.

Pretty much anything short of gassing is an unpleasant way to go.

Although when I had my first panic attack and I got all the way up to tunnel vision and ringing in my ears (wasn't a heart attack, I got tested afterwards) I realized that once you pass out everything's a good way to go. I was scared as shiat and then it was like euphoria. Accepting that death was imminent and losing all fear actually broke the panic attack. So no matter what you're dying of, if you can pass out it's fine from that point on.

Vinz_Clortho:Submitter is an idiot. It's an autopsy....he reports the findings.

What a douchey headline to greenlight.That said, I used to wonder why coroners announced obvious causes of death. No shiat they died from the bite of the shark. It took off half their body. But time of death is important in ruling out homicides and things like that I guess. Back when I was with the mob I used to frequently derail coal trains to cover up murders making it look like two random teenage girls were in a horrible accident as they were drinking at some random, picturesque if you will, Maryland village. Yes, I know it seems like sort of an outdated, old-school way to do things. But you got to commend those guys for keeping traditions alive. You really have no choice; sometimes one's gotta let a biatch or two know. The old tip - the - coal - train bit is effective if nothing else.

To be fair, there are at least a few other ways they could have gone. (Disclamier: I didn't RTFA or really any on this story (only little blurbs) so don't know if this is ruled out by other knowledge.) In particular, that much coal could have crushed them so they had internal injuries and died of shock.

/Actually, that would have been my first guess.//So add me to the "subby is retarded" parade

They were found in their exact sitting positions, engulfed by ambient-temperature coal. I'm sure they felt something and I'm sure it was terrifying. Instantly trapped in darkness, unable to move or breath. Shiat.

Lady Beryl Ersatz-Wendigo:This whole event was just bizarre. Do they suspect foul play or sabotage? Why would those cars derail right at that spot?

There are dozens of derailings that occur each year. Eventually, one is bound to happen when someone is at the wrong place at the wrong time. The only stats I could find in a quick Google search said there's a train derailment resulting in a chemical spill once every 2 weeks, but I wouldn't put much weight in that. After enough events through enough years, a low-probability event is bound to occur...

ultraholland:findthefish: Hopefully any pain was brief, if any at all.

They were found in their exact sitting positions, engulfed by ambient-temperature coal. I'm sure they felt something and I'm sure it was terrifying. Instantly trapped in darkness, unable to move or breath. Shiat.

silverjets:Vinz_Clortho: Submitter is an idiot. It's an autopsy....he reports the findings.

Pretty much this.

No different than doing an autopsy on a body with a gunshot wound to the chest. Quite obvious what they died of but the coroner still has to file their report.

There's a lot of facts a coroner uncovers. Did that person have other marks suggesting a struggle? Are there powder burns in the wound that show it was a close range shot? Important if the scene suggests a suicide but the burns are missing...

In this case, the coroner can rule out that they weren't murdered before the derailment among other things.

ultraholland:findthefish: Hopefully any pain was brief, if any at all.

They were found in their exact sitting positions, engulfed by ambient-temperature coal. I'm sure they felt something and I'm sure it was terrifying. Instantly trapped in darkness, unable to move or breath. Shiat.

They did not die a pleasent death. It was not peaceful. Having carbon dioxide build up in your blood, while suffering from the slow and agonizing process of respiratory acidosis and hypoxia is not a quick death. It's arduous. And you have up to five minutes of pain and agony before that sweet release.

BronyMedic:ultraholland: findthefish: Hopefully any pain was brief, if any at all.

They were found in their exact sitting positions, engulfed by ambient-temperature coal. I'm sure they felt something and I'm sure it was terrifying. Instantly trapped in darkness, unable to move or breath. Shiat.

They did not die a pleasent death. It was not peaceful. Having carbon dioxide build up in your blood, while suffering from the slow and agonizing process of respiratory acidosis and hypoxia is not a quick death. It's arduous. And you have up to five minutes of pain and agony before that sweet release.

They suffered. There's no doubt about that.

I was hoping the impact of that much coal would have left them unconscious.

Maybe it's confirmation bias at work here, but it seems as though bizarre, out-of-the-blue deaths preferentially strike young women. Those two ladies were just sitting on a bridge, admiring the view, not troubling anyone nor tempting fate in any way, and along comes 100tons of coal and lands smack on top of them. It could have landed anywhere else along the railway, but it chose those two unoffending young ladies specifically.

College-age men generally have to apply to be eligible for the more exotic deaths that destiny holds in store. There are always a handful of fatalities in every university class, but with the males it's always something that was asked for, say, by dressing up as a suicide bomber on Halloween and bursting into a police station, or climbing the zoo fence to spray paint a bull elephant. At that age I did a few things that might have got me killed, and none of them would have left anyone feeling sorry for me. The ladies, however, get claimed by Fate for having drinks in view of the skyline. Sad.

Lady Beryl Ersatz-Wendigo:This whole event was just bizarre. Do they suspect foul play or sabotage? Why would those cars derail right at that spot?

FTA:Investigators have also said the train's emergency brakes were applied automatically - not by the three-man crew - but they don't know why 21 cars of the 80 cars derailed.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Jim Southworth has said the train's two locomotives did not derail and that the crew reported they "felt nothing, and they saw nothing before emergency braking occurred on their train."

It certainly doesn't look like sabotage or foul play (assuming the info there is correct). The locomotives for some unknown damn reason decided they needed to lock up the brakes and I'm guessing the weight and momentum of the coal in the cars was enough to throw them off the rails.

SandMann:Most Autopsies would earn and obvious tag.It is just the medical examiners doing their job. You try it sometime, subby.

Yeah. You do them anyway to make sure things are as they appear. Otherwise it would be too easy for murderers to make their crimes look like accidents.

33centpanties:Vinz_Clortho: Submitter is an idiot. It's an autopsy....he reports the findings.

What a douchey headline to greenlight.That said, I used to wonder why coroners announced obvious causes of death. No shiat they died from the bite of the shark. It took off half their body. But time of death is important in ruling out homicides and things like that I guess. Back when I was with the mob I used to frequently derail coal trains to cover up murders making it look like two random teenage girls were in a horrible accident as they were drinking at some random, picturesque if you will, Maryland village. Yes, I know it seems like sort of an outdated, old-school way to do things. But you got to commend those guys for keeping traditions alive. You really have no choice; sometimes one's gotta let a biatch or two know. The old tip - the - coal - train bit is effective if nothing else.

I would think that taking advantage of the derailment would be much more likely than staging it.

TheDirtyNacho:silverjets: Vinz_Clortho: Submitter is an idiot. It's an autopsy....he reports the findings.

Pretty much this.

No different than doing an autopsy on a body with a gunshot wound to the chest. Quite obvious what they died of but the coroner still has to file their report.

There's a lot of facts a coroner uncovers. Did that person have other marks suggesting a struggle? Are there powder burns in the wound that show it was a close range shot? Important if the scene suggests a suicide but the burns are missing...

In this case, the coroner can rule out that they weren't murdered before the derailment among other things.

The coroner also can rule out, "The women had passed out drunk on the tracks, which in turn caused or contributed to the derailment," which was the investigators' primary concern.

Nobody with any sense thought the women might have been murdered, and that a train was then derailed in such a way that a load of coal would land precisely where it was necessary to land on them, thus obscuring the crime.

They wanted to know if the women somehow caused the train to derail, or if some other force (perhaps a landslide?) derailed the train and, coincidentally, trapped the unlucky victims on or near the tracks at the wrong time.

ShannonKW:Maybe it's confirmation bias at work here, but it seems as though bizarre, out-of-the-blue deaths preferentially strike young women. Those two ladies were just sitting on a bridge, admiring the view, not troubling anyone nor tempting fate in any way, and along comes 100tons of coal and lands smack on top of them. It could have landed anywhere else along the railway, but it chose those two unoffending young ladies specifically.

College-age men generally have to apply to be eligible for the more exotic deaths that destiny holds in store. There are always a handful of fatalities in every university class, but with the males it's always something that was asked for, say, by dressing up as a suicide bomber on Halloween and bursting into a police station, or climbing the zoo fence to spray paint a bull elephant. At that age I did a few things that might have got me killed, and none of them would have left anyone feeling sorry for me. The ladies, however, get claimed by Fate for having drinks in view of the skyline. Sad.

ShannonKW:Maybe it's confirmation bias at work here, but it seems as though bizarre, out-of-the-blue deaths preferentially strike young women. Those two ladies were just sitting on a bridge, admiring the view, not troubling anyone nor tempting fate in any way, and along comes 100tons of coal and lands smack on top of them.

Hey, at least it wasn't a toilet seat from a space station being de-orbited, if you know what I mean.

findthefishBronyMedic: ultraholland: findthefish: Hopefully any pain was brief, if any at all.

They were found in their exact sitting positions, engulfed by ambient-temperature coal. I'm sure they felt something and I'm sure it was terrifying. Instantly trapped in darkness, unable to move or breath. Shiat.

They did not die a pleasent death. It was not peaceful. Having carbon dioxide build up in your blood, while suffering from the slow and agonizing process of respiratory acidosis and hypoxia is not a quick death. It's arduous. And you have up to five minutes of pain and agony before that sweet release.

They suffered. There's no doubt about that.

I was hoping the impact of that much coal would have left them unconscious.

I kinda hoped they got swept off the bridge and quickly crushed. It would have been a lot quicker.

Or better still, they show up alive and admit they had walked off the bridge prior to the train's approach but then they tittie flashed the crew which caused the crew to wreck the train.

Darth.Balls:It certainly doesn't look like sabotage or foul play (assuming the info there is correct). The locomotives for some unknown damn reason decided they needed to lock up the brakes and I'm guessing the weight and momentum of the coal in the cars was enough to throw them off the rails.

Train brakes are applied on each car by reducing the pressure in an air line that runs throughout the length of the train. If there is a break/separation in the line and the pressure is lost - i.e., a return to atmospheric pressure - the brakes automatically go into emergency. (The air pressure holds the brake shoes off the wheels.)

What we don't know here is - did the train derail, breaking the train line and throwing it into emergency, as is often the case? Or did the train experience some other problem that ruptured the line, throwing the brakes into emergency and subsequently derailing the cars? While less common, an emergency application creates some vicious in-train forces that can (and have) cause derailments.